Municipal authorities painted over a mural of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic in central Belgrade but the former Bosnian Serb general’s supporters immediately tried to wash off the paint.

The mural was painted over with white paint on Thursday morning but two young men turned up right after the painters left and started washing the mural. Nationalist activists removed white and black paint thrown at the mural on two separate occasions.

The Vracar municipal authorities ordered the tenants’ association of the building the mural was painted on to remove it on September 20 but any attempt to paint over the mural was stopped by nationalists. Human rights activist Aid Corovic pelted eggs at the mural and was arrested by plain clothes police. Her arrest resulted in several days of protests while extremists stood guard in front of the mural and painted two more murals on nearby walls – one of the commander of WW 2 royalist forces who was convicted for collaboration with the Nazis and the other of a WW I Serbian royal army general. Both of them are considered patriotic icons by nationalist extremists.

A Vracar Municipality statement said that it sent workers to paint over the mural following several complaints and the failure of the tenants’ association to remove it.